


Dahj's Fire

by justanotherramblingfangirl



Series: I've Seen Fire and I've Seen Rain [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Picard
Genre: Alternative Perspective, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, just read the summary please, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:55:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25976299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justanotherramblingfangirl/pseuds/justanotherramblingfangirl
Summary: Dahj's death in Episode 1 of Picard set a whole chain of events in motion, but what we didn't see was the buildup that led to Dahj's final choice. This is my version of what having her android origins activated might have felt like for Dahj, essentially giving her voice a chance to tell the last chapter of her story as she tries desperately to save Picard.
Series: I've Seen Fire and I've Seen Rain [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1885375
Kudos: 3





	Dahj's Fire

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is me trying to write something in 15 minutes and seeing what popped out. Obviously, I failed on the time limit, but I kinda liked it and so I kept going. Enjoy!

Dahj was running. She didn’t know what the heck she was doing here, she couldn’t tell where Picard was-it was all a blur.

 _She’d been activated_.

They were headed for the rooftop, but it was too far away. Picard slipped on the smooth white stairwell concrete, and she wrenched his arm in a vain attempt to get him to safety. It wasn’t working, already she could see the black streaks catching up. That left one option only.

 _Fight_.

Suddenly, she felt her limbs jerk into motion, like being thrown to a stop on a hovertrain unexpectedly. Dahj twisted around and around and suddenly she’d hit someone harder than she ever had in her entire life and there was smoke in her eyes and fire in her hair but she just kept hitting and punching and drawing out blood with whatever she could.

Vaguely she heard buzzing in the back of her brain, saw people below in crisp uniforms stop and stare. Her eyes flitted around, trying to focus on what was important rather than random bits of data like the cracked concrete below her, or the pain, or the hazy red that was hitting the ground. She’d gotten knocked down during the fight. Dahj couldn’t waste time- but she couldn’t get up. Then suddenly she heard a gasp.

 _Picard_.

Instantly she was up again, fighting harder than ever, bolting as electricity singed through her body. She kept going and saw Picard kneeling where she’d left him, one of the black-clothed figures standing over him-her brain instantly scanned and focused for the threat and saw the Romulan disruptor aimed and powered up and beginning to glow and her brain was on fire again as she erupted and-

 _NO_.

The next thing Dahj knew, she was surrounded by the black streaks on white and blue and then there was nothing. Time seemed to slow down as she glanced at her hands. The black streaks lay around her like pepper on her mother’s kitchen table. In a heartbeat’s skip, she saw that Picard was down a flight of stairs from her. Looking. Shocked. But also-

 _Grateful_.

And Dahj knew it was okay. She was with Picard. She was safe, for the very first time since that one terrible evening, with her boyfriend’s lips on hers and the shattered glass on the floor and the inexplicable moment when something inside had snapped and she’d known. Nothing was the same. Then she saw what was before her. One of the black streaks. His helmet had been destroyed in the fight-whether she had done it she wasn’t sure- and he was _Romulan_.

No, she knew what he really was.

 _Tal Shiar_.

He was spitting rage, pure hatred stemming from his features. Dahj finally stopped shaking. The fighting, burning energy that had been coursing through her was starting to ebb. Her head throbbed with the wound she’d gotten on that night in her apartment.

_She looked back at Picard, and started to smile-_

And that’s where everything went wrong. Blood roared into her ears as a searing pain lit up her face, and the agony made her scream in fiery fury. She heard Picard’s shout, shoved the disruptor in her hands to the ground as the poison scorched through the machinery, scorched through _her_.

She crumbled to the ground, her safety fleeing, lava cascading in waves of red-hot pain as the world exploded around her. She saw Picard flying backward, hitting the pavement with a noise like a hammer crashing onto hard sand. She saw Starfleet HQ filled with students, cadets, and lieutenants rushing out of the building on a break. She saw the Old Golden Gate Bridge rising just above the rooftop into the blue infinity. She saw her mom’s calm, steady face, slightly tinted by a holographic screen as she told her what she needed to do. She saw herself, winding and winding along with the world until it slowly began to break as surely as Mars had.

And then the world exploded, and as white-hot flames began to rage in an inferno across her consciousness, as Dahj fell to her knees and the world blew up around her, she had one comfort.

 _Picard was safe. She was safe_.

More than that, Dahj knew what she was. And more importantly, what her sister could be.

 _Soji is Data’s only daughter now_.

**Author's Note:**

> So, yeah! Does my Dahj sound like Dahj? I always have problems getting my characters to sound, well, in-character. Please comment and review- CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is always deeply appreciated. Also, although I've been writing fanfic for some time, this is the first one I've ever posted online! So thanks for taking a chance on a newbie. See y'all later!


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